The lineup for the final team challenge scheduled for the fifth edition of the 2009 “M-1 Challenge Presented by Affliction” on Friday, June 5 at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas has been finalized.
A total of 15 bouts featuring 30 fighters representing six different countries are set to take place with USA East headling on its home turf vs. Finland with England defending its first place lead in Group A against France.
Additionally, the show will open with Group D rivals World Team and Team Turkey scheduled to go head-to-head.
Rosters for USA East, Finland, France, and England have all been announced and M-1Global.com can now exclusively reveal the head-to-head matchups between the World Team vs. Turkey.
The World Team, which is coached by former DREAM middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi, will be returning four of five fighters from its opening season loss to Russia Legion this past March in Bourgas, Bulgaria. Likewise, Turkey will also be returning four of five fighters from its opening season loss to Germany while in Bulgaria.
At lightweight, former Team Spain member and Muay Thai standout Romano de los Reyes will represent the World Team against Turkey’s Akin Duran while World Team welterweight Jason Ponet will square off vs. Faith Dogan.
At middleweight, the World Team’s Nathan Schouten and Turkey’s Ahmed Bayrak will both be looking for their first wins of the season when they go toe-to-toe. Also returning for the World Team is Nills Van Noord, who became an instant crowd favorite with the Bulgarian crowd in March for his relentless fighting style and intense ring entrance. He will be in search of his first-ever M-1 Challenge victory when he takes on Turkey’s Samy Turky.
In Bulgaria, World Team heavyweight Michael Kitta was the only individual fighter to record a win over Russia Legion and he will look to go 2-0 on the season when he takes on Turkey’s Abdullah Ahmady, a newcomer to the team who is replacing Tugrul Okay.
Tickets for the June 5 M-1 Challenge event are currently on-sale at all Ticketmaster outlets as well as Ticketmaster.com. In addition to the 15 M-1 Challenge bouts, fans in attendance will also be treated to special appearances by former PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko and former DREAM middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi.
